Giants

Giants was the retroactive name for Attitude, an American Latin-funk studio group assembled in 1971 between Santana and Family Stone players. Drummer Greg Errico retained the 1972 session tracks until 1978, when the album Giants (aka San Francisco Giants) appeared on LAX Records.

Members: Greg Errico, Carlos Santana, Neal Schon, Gregg Rolie, Jose “Chepito” Areas, Herbie Hancock, Wendy Haas, Freddie Pool, Coke Escovedo, Lee Oskar

Background

Attitude formed in San Francisco in 1971 when percussionist Michael Carabello teamed with drummer Greg Errico on the sessions later issued under the Giants name.

Carabello joined the first Santana Blues Band lineup on congas and returned as they configured under the Santana moniker. He appeared on Santana, Abraxas, and Santana III, then left the group in October 1971 amid a break with Carlos Santana.

Errico met guitarist Freddie Stone while still in high school and joined Freddie & the Stone Souls. Sly Stone and Freddie Stone brought Errico into the new Sly & the Family Stone lineup in December 1966 in San Francisco. Errico remained with the group through their 1971 release There’s a Riot Goin’ On.

Carabello and Errico developed Attitude at CBS/Columbia Studios as a loose San Francisco recording project. Neal Schon joined the session circle and co-mixed the proposed album in December 1972 at Columbia Studios. Carlos Santana dropped by the sessions, which also featured Santana drummer Michael Shrieve and bassists David Brown and Doug Rauch.

Attitude dissolved at the close of the 1971–72 sessions. Errico retained the unreleased tapes until 1977, when he completed the vocal tracks and secured release through Jerry Goldstein’s Far Out organization. By March 1978, Far Out placed San Francisco Giants on the L.A. International release slate as Greg Errico’s debut LP.

Discography:

• Giants (1978)

References and notes

• The strongest source is Ben Fong-Torres’ December 7, 1972 Rolling Stone Santana feature. Fong-Torres encountered Carabello and Schon at Columbia Studios while they mixed Attitude and described the album as a project Carabello and friends had pursued for roughly a year. The same contemporary article identifies Brown, Rauch, Shrieve, and Carlos Santana among contributors to the album then under construction.
• Greg Errico gave a clear account of his pre-Attitude background in a later interview: he played with Freddie Stone while still in high school, joined the musicians who became Sly & the Family Stone in December 1966, and began gigging with them immediately. (Red Bull Music Academy Daily) His official biography likewise places his Family Stone departure in 1971. (Greg Errico)
• Santana’s official personnel history places Michael Carabello on congas in the 1966–67 lineup and again from 1969 through 1971. (Santana) A 1972 account of the Santana split also places Carabello outside the group amid the 1971 breakup that fed directly into Attitude.
• Jim McCarthy and Ron Sansoe’s Voices of Latin Rock gives the key later chronology: Errico revived Carabello’s 1971–72 Attitude sessions, completed the vocal material, and obtained release through L.A. International under the Giants title. The relevant passage from page 220 is reproduced here. (My Favorite Decade) McCarthy’s research drew on years of interviews with Bay Area Latin-rock musicians, including Carabello and other Santana figures. (SFGATE)
• A March 1978 Record World feature on Far Out confirms the transition from old session project to impending release: Far Out listed “Greg Errico’s debut lp, ‘San Francisco Giants’” among current company projects. (World Radio History)